Idris Elba's cameo on Taylor Swift's "London Boy" nearly makes up for its impossibly lame lyrics
Aux Features Music
Today, Taylor Swift released her much-anticipated Lover, an 18-track collection of sparkly love songs featuring production by Jack Antonoff and collaborations with St. Vincent and Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie. Give “London Boy” a spin and you might recognize another voice in Swift’s Cats co-star Idris Elba.
“We could go driving on my scooter, you know, just around London,” the Hackney-born actor exudes at the song’s outset, helping usher in the song’s daylong exploration of the city. He didn’t record it specifically for the album; rather, the soundbite comes from a 2017 interview Elba did with James Corden, another Cats co-star. This delighted many, but disappointed those who hoped for a cameo from Swift’s boyfriend, English actor Joe Alwyn, as the song is clearly about the pair’s idyllic, probably heavily fortified trips throughout the city.
Still, plenty of Swift’s English fans wish she and Joe had taken Elba’s scooter elsewhere, pointing out that bouncing between Highgate, Brixton, and Shoreditch sounds like a miserable day spent sweating in a crowded train.
Of course, what the above tweets fail to acknowledge is that Swift, star that she is, probably travels via teleportation or, at the very least, inside a suitcase in a helicopter, cutting down travel times significantly. The real issue, others argue, is that nobody in their right mind would want to do the basic-ass shit she sings about.
Of course, they could just be trying to avoid her ex, Tom Hiddleston, who we assume is far too classy for such touristy activities.
45 Comments
No it doesn’t.
“Impossibly lame lyrics”See also: every single Taylor Swift song.
Say what you will, but she’ll just shake it off.
We are never, ever getting back together, Facetaco.
We! (wheeee!)
So it turns out she was right and the haters really are just gonna hate hate hate.
Ignorance must be a hell of a bliss
Ignorance must be a hell of a blissThe grammar of this comment aligns nicely with your defense of Swift’s writing as good.
Ohh look, AV Club got a cool material to mock Taylor Swift.
My thoughts when Taylor Swift first came on the scene was that she had great musical talent but had the songwriting skills and interests of a teenager, which she was; I figured that when she got older her writing would mature and she’d become a force to be reckoned with.I guess when you’re famous there’s no need to grow up.
I think she did actually start to mature. It’s just that she has regressed back into a pouty navel gazing teenager on her past two albums. I mean how many songs do we need about how the haterz are making poor Taylor’s life so very very hard?
She’s been 15 years old for the past 15 years. Now enjoy the rage from the grayed out fanboys.
“Taylor, if you’re going to continue to defy the laws of entropy by refusing to age, they will start performing experiments on you!”
She wrote “I never grow up, it’s getting so old” in the “The Archer” so…even she knows this is true.
Have you actually listened to/read the lyrics of any of her songs other than singles/songs made fun of on the AV Club? Try All Too Well, Dear John, Cornelia Street, Soon You’ll Get Better, heck Blank Space or Our Song. You can say a lot of things about Swift if you like, but not that she’s not a great songwriter.
To each their own, I guess; however:How did nobody who wrote or produced “Our Song” notice that talking real slow does nothing to keep one’s mother from hearing? (She probably meant “talk real low”)
Good old lovely moderation. Echo chamber isn’t it?
Tangential related question:Panic at the Disco is a one man band that consists solely of Brandon Urie.Should he therefore be referred to as Panic at the Disco or Brendon Urie, but not Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco since that implies there are other members?
But what’s his nickname? ‘Panic’ or ‘Disco’? Panco?
I mean he’s white enough to be panco
That’s Panic! At the Disco. I know because my husband loves to mention it to my Brendan Urie-loving teen by nearly shouting the panic part to indicate the punctuation. Verrrry satisfying results.
JEB! At The Disco would have won the election.
“Hah!” ~ Dads
Should he therefore be referred to as Panic at the Disco or Brendon Urie, but not Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco since that implies there are other members?The other members are the exclamation mark you omitted in “Panic!”
The fact that Brendon Urie still calls his “band” Panic! at the Disco even though he wasn’t even one of the two founding members (who are all no longer part of the band) nor does the current music even resemble OG Panic! at the Disco is one of my greatest emo gripes in this world.
Ignoring all the logistics of band contracts and just looking at it from the outside:I’m generally okay with it because the lead singer is usually the most easily identifiable part of the band.So I’ve usually been of the mindset that band with a new lead singer needs the new name whereas lead singer replacing the instrumentalists can keep the name.
Back when the Mountain Goats was John Darnielle’s one-man project (before it eventually turned into an actual band), he would take the stage, alone with his guitar, and say “hi everybody, we’re the Mountain Goats.”I always appreciated the commitment.
Whatever, Lover is a great album, almost as good as 1989. I love the title track, The Man, Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince and Cornelia Street, I enjoy almost all other songs (I’m not a big fan of ME!). London Boy is insanely catchy. My favorite mainstream pop album this year so far.
Honestly agree. Some real great stuff in there. Cruel Summer stands out as well. Lot of new sounds from her and they really work.
I think I still like Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Dedicated” just a bit more, though I’m not sure if CRJ still counts as “mainstream”.
Florence Welch waits for her, south of the river, with a brick in her handbag.
Are you sure that’s not Flavor Flav?
I think it should become an AV Club editorial rule that all actors who appear in the new Cats movie should always be depicted by a photo of them in Cat form.
Me too! I love having psychotropic nightmares inflicted on me!
The real issue, others argue, is that nobody in their right mind would want to do the basic-ass shit she sings about.
Lame?! Was were the adventures in Taylor Swift’s ode to South Dakota, Mount Heartmore, lame?
Dismiss this all you want, but in 50 years musicologists* will be expounding on the genre of Becky Rap Songs and how they turned the same two-note melodies and half-rhymes lifted from Instagram posts into 100s of major hits. Ke$ha will be noted as a pioneer.Mark my words!*on Mars bc Earth will be no more, natch
Shit…I enjoyed walking Camden market in the afternoon. Bought a couple of nice shirts at Modfather.
ikr? Who are these fucking mizzogs on Twitter? Camden on a Saturday would be a great date idea if you were seeing someone who wasn’t from London.And moaning about the Tube as well; in what fucking universe does Brixton to Shoreditch take eighty minutes? These people sound like the type of person who’d complain if they found a fiver on the ground.
Rigggght?
To be fair, looking at their respective Twitter accounts, it seems like a lot of people have piled on with this opinion.I’m not for harassing people over something trivial they said, so I’ll leave it at that, but don’t generalise about London, man. That’s rule number one.
I would never do that….I mean, as an American, I may GENERALIZE…
I think there’s something to be said for doing touristy things just to have done them, whether you’re in London or New York or Paris or whatever. But let’s be real, Taylor Swift could afford to block off Mayfair and hunt people for sport with a crossbow, so I doubt she’s doing any of this stuff.
Or as his character in Hobbs and Shaw would say Schmidris Schmelba’s Schmameo Schmon Schmaylor Schmift’s “Schmondon Schmoy” schmearly schmakes schmup schmor schmits schimpossibly schmame schmyrics.
On a scooter that’s like an hour and a half of transit total, barring rush hour. One half of an LA commute is not unreasonable to do in one day.
I was born and raised in London, so let me just say this in the most British style I can muster:Everyone who is moan-tweeting about this sounds like an insufferable c**t.